What bands 'should' have been bigger?

[tuscaneer]

heisthegaffer said:

I met the drummer from DM in Our Price, Welwyn Garden City once.

christian eigner? fking incredible drummer... i often wonder how martin gore would have reacted had he had access to him earlier in his career...would it have shaped how he wrote songs in a different direction... i know he's not actually a proper member of the band and only really plays live drums on tour but their sound has definitely broadened since him and peter gordino on keyboards(another fantastic musician....his live reworkings of some of martin's solo songs are ace) joined in the late 90s

[lockhart flawse]

tuscaneer said:

.... i fking hate country music

On that at least we can agree although I hate Country and Western...

[Pastor Of Muppets]

tuscaneer said:

lockhart flawse said:

I am also a 40 year+ guitar player (I have 2 x Strats and a 1976 Explorer) and I passed grade 8 flute at school (not cool I know....).

I get the "technique" argument but it's not as important as feel and fit. Testament etc are without soul and nuance and all the guitarists need reining in; less is more an all that. See Robert Fripp for technique applied with taste.

oh ok,

i have a '74 fender usa strat , '96 gibson les paul standard , ESP stephen carpenter 8 string , schecter demon 7 7 string , PRS Santana as well as a few acoustics and a classical.......

not quite sure that helps my argument or not but i thought best to follow suit......

for my money, there is no music i can't listen to and take something away from / appreciate.... i fking hate country music but i can appreciate the real delicacy in the playing of a chet atkins or merle travis...

i listen to a fairly wide span of music.....from flameno ( guys like vicente amigo are jaw droppingly good players) to electronic based stuff (depeche mode pretty much my favourite band) through the cinematic orchestra and film scorers ( hans zimmer and john williams are incredible writers and arrangers).....right through from hardcore to all the modern variants of djent and the mad world of the poly rhythmic stuff from guys like tosin abasi.....

but i also grew up on led zeppelin, deep purple etc and went right through the NWOBHM and into thrash in real time as it unfolded......testament and megadeth stand out in that era for me as the song writing and atmosphere are there in spades....incredible musicians to a man..all of them...to watch drummers like nick menza live or guitarists like skolnik live is a rare treat and it makes me sad that a chap who has 40 years experience as a guitar player can't see/get all the little nuances and feel of these guys......i guess some people will always hear but never listen

Great post and nicely put. I have been following Testament since the first album and saw them on their first ever visit to Scotland
at the Edinburgh Playhouse supporting Anthrax in '87. Alex and Eric are absolute legends and their musical ability is
nothing short of phenomenal, Alex' stuff with Trans Siberian Orchestra is on another level completely and his range of different
styles and genres is just astonishing, even Satriani who originally schooled Alex in guitar technique holds him in very high
regard.
So when you get someone coming along with the comment that they have 'no musical ability' there is only one worthwhile
response..to laugh your frickin ass off.

[tuscaneer]

Pastor Of Muppets said:

Great post and nicely put. I have been following Testament since the first album and saw them on their first ever visit to Scotland
at the Edinburgh Playhouse supporting Anthrax in '87. Alex and Eric are absolute legends and their musical ability is
nothing short of phenomenal, Alex' stuff with Trans Siberian Orchestra is on another level completely and his range of different
styles and genres is just astonishing, even Satriani who originally schooled Alex in guitar technique holds him in very high
regard.
So when you get someone coming along with the comment that they have 'no musical ability' there is only one worthwhile
response..to laugh your frickin ass off.

the great awakening for me was when i first heard "trial by fire".....it was astonishing to me... everything, the heaviness (for the time it felt proper heavy) , the production... the bass sounded insane to me .... and the lead guitar at the start over that sinister and dark intro...perfection...

i'm sure i read an interview somewhere with satriani talking about skolnik being one of the most naturally talented guitar players he'd ever taught.... high praise indeed!

[tuscaneer]

lockhart flawse said:

tuscaneer said:

.... i fking hate country music

On that at least we can agree although I hate Country and Western...

you still need to open your ears a bit though pal

[paulguitar]

tuscaneer said:

lockhart flawse said:

tuscaneer said:

.... i fking hate country music

On that at least we can agree although I hate Country and Western...

you still need to open your ears a bit though pal

Some of the Nashville session players are truly astonishing musicians though. Not all country is simplistic three-chord pickup truck crap.

[Deep Thought]

Johnnytheboy said:

The Screaming Trees - not pretty enough

Kyuss - too niche I guess

I'm a big Mark Lanegan fan and i'd really like to like the Screaming Trees but really cant warm to them. I find their stuff fairly bland TBH.

[tuscaneer]

paulguitar said:

Some of the Nashville session players are truly astonishing musicians though. Not all country is simplistic three-chord pickup truck crap.

totally agree pal... still hate the sound of it all though!!

[Deep Thought]

irocfan said:

I was just listening to Y&T and Dokken on YouTube and it did get me to thinking why on earth were they not as big as Bon Jovi (for instance)? Going on to these shores and the standout groups were (I guess) Iron Maiden and Def Leppard but I think it's fair to say that they weren't streets ahead of their competition (if at all). Why did Magnum and Diamond Head never hit the same popularity?

What other "West Ham" (too good for the 1st div not good enough for the premier) groups are there out there? Why didn't they make it?

I read up on them a bit as i'd often wondered the same thing, but i think the general view was that every album changed direction for them hence they lost their audience each time instead of building on their fan base.

I've only listened to the obvious stuff though

[paulguitar]

tuscaneer said:

paulguitar said:

Some of the Nashville session players are truly astonishing musicians though. Not all country is simplistic three-chord pickup truck crap.

totally agree pal... still hate the sound of it all though!!

I think Brits have an instinctive reaction against it. After 18 years in the USA, I've come to appreciate some of it a bit more. To be fair, most of it is pretty awful though!

[crofty1984]

Moominho said:

Pitchshifter were unbelievable. Fantastic live and their albums were consistently brilliant. Ahead of their time by a few years I think, can’t think of any other reason why they weren’t bigger than they were/are.

Agreed.

[tuscaneer]

paulguitar said:

tuscaneer said:

paulguitar said:

Some of the Nashville session players are truly astonishing musicians though. Not all country is simplistic three-chord pickup truck crap.

totally agree pal... still hate the sound of it all though!!

I think Brits have an instinctive reaction against it. After 18 years in the USA, I've come to appreciate some of it a bit more. To be fair, most of it is pretty awful though!

yeah, there's just a negative gut reaction from me.. everything about it.. the tonality, even the structures and construction of the chord movements just turn me off.... i suppose it's an acquired taste... much the same way with flamenco i think... the vocals are much too harsh to the untrained ear..... a guy like vicente amigo is a relative unknown outside of spain but i was in madrid when he released "ciudad de las ideas".. it was everywhere... absolute superstar over there...

[Bacon Is Proof]

tuscaneer said:

oh.... and how kerbdog never blew up i will never know...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imf76JNPsYo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OupA5wt3IKQ

every song off that album was an absolute masterpiece.. just wave after wave of catchier and catchier verses, pre choruses and choruses..

A quick google reveals that I saw them in '94 at the Cambridge Junction supporting Therapy? with Credit to the Nation. I think the gig was covered by Raw Power/Noisy Mothers as I remember seeing myself on the telly. They were good live.

[tuscaneer]

crofty1984 said:

Moominho said:

Pitchshifter were unbelievable. Fantastic live and their albums were consistently brilliant. Ahead of their time by a few years I think, can’t think of any other reason why they weren’t bigger than they were/are.

Agreed.

i saw pitch shifter in liverpool planet x after they had released their first album... tellies on the stage showing scenes from a slaughterhouse and a 1980s drum machine...it stuck with me to this day... there were about 20 people in this little tiny basement and it still felt empty

great band though...

[tuscaneer]

Bacon Is Proof said:

tuscaneer said:

oh.... and how kerbdog never blew up i will never know...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imf76JNPsYo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OupA5wt3IKQ

every song off that album was an absolute masterpiece.. just wave after wave of catchier and catchier verses, pre choruses and choruses..

A quick google reveals that I saw them in '94 at the Cambridge Junction supporting Therapy? with Credit to the Nation. I think the gig was covered by Raw Power/Noisy Mothers as I remember seeing myself on the telly. They were good live.

we narrowly missed out on supporting them at the krazyhouse in liverpool....i went to the show anyway and it was one of the loudest things i've ever heard... i couldn't hear for days afterwards... fking great band, great live , great recorded and criminally underrated almost universally...

i think that was around '94 too...

[hepy]

marcosgt said:

hepy said:

The Real People - late 80's early 90's Liverpool band. Allegedly taught Noel Gallagher how to write songs.

"Heh, Noel, it's easy, listen to some 60s and 70s stuff and fit some new words around the tunes...."

M

Noel even based one track on a Gary Glitter song!

[popeyewhite]

Johnnytheboy said:

Kyuss - too niche I guess

Good call. And they've influenched so many.

[paulguitar]

Here's one, amazing band, Jellyfish:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymPQ_LtRpTY

[Gompo]

While they were successful to a degree, I think Carter USM are overlooked or generally forgotten about. A brilliant debut album, some social commentary very much relevant today. Some great, original tunes too.

Notable mentions to Jesus Jones and EMF. JJ's Perverse album rarely talked about but some great electronic, borderline industrial rock tracks.

tuscaneer said:

i saw pitch shifter in liverpool planet x after they had released their first album... tellies on the stage showing scenes from a slaughterhouse and a 1980s drum machine...it stuck with me to this day... there were about 20 people in this little tiny basement and it still felt empty

great band though...

Pitch Shifter were great, Pitchshifter not so much.

[heisthegaffer]

Johnnytheboy said:

Kyuss - too niche I guess

Started listening to them today. Brilliant. I'm a massive fan of Down and I can hear similarities between them.